“I saw his eyes fix themselves over my shoulder” — illustration to Arthur Conan Doyle's “The Hound of the Baskervilles” by Sidney Paget

[Victorian Web Home —> Arthur Conan Doyle —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Sidney Paget —> Next]

I saw his eyes fix themselves over my shoulder

Sidney Paget

1891

Photographic reproduction of ink or watercolor on paper

Illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle's “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” p. 352.

Passage illustrated: “""I can well remember driving up to his house in the evening some three weeks before the fatal event. He chanced to be at his hall door. I had descended from my gig and was standing in front of him, when I saw his eyes fix themselves over my shoulder and stare past me with an expression of the most dreadful horror. ” [continued below]

Formatting and text by George P. Landow.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage illustrated

I whisked round and had just time to catch a glimpse of something which I took to be a large black calf passing at the head of the drive. So excited and alarmed was he that I was compelled to go down to the spot where the animal had been and look around for it. It was gone, however, and the incident appeared to make the worst impression upon his mind. I stayed with him all the evening, and it was on that occasion, to explain the emotion which he had shown, that he confided to my keeping that narrative which I read to you when first I came. I mention this small episode because it assumes some importance in view of the tragedy which followed, but I was convinced at the time that the matter was entirely trivial and that his excitement had no justification.

Bibliography

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes. “Reproduced from the original publication in The Strand Magazine with the classic illustrations by Sidney Paget.” Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, [after 1954]. Internet Archive version of a copy donated by Friends of the San Francisco Library. Web.

Last modified 9 December 2013